Asus first revealed the Asus ROG NUC in CES 2024and now more price and release date information is emerging about the small form factor gaming PC, which could easily be one of the best gaming PCs in the market.
Thanks to a pre-order list at a European retailer Sports shopand reported by PC gamer, we now know that the mini-gaming PC will set you back €2,500, which translates to around $2,700 for the top-end configuration, although it probably won't cost that much in the US. That version includes an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H CPU and an RTX 4070 GPU, as well as 2×16 GB of DDR5 memory and 1 TB of SSD storage. According to that same list, its launch is scheduled for April 10, 2024.
The Asus ROG NUC can house up to 64GB of DDR5 SO-DIMM memory, three PCIe Gen 4 SSDs, and has Wi-Fi 6E, 2.5GB LAN, and Thunderbolt4/USB4. It also supports up to four displays: DP 2.1, dual DP 1.4a and a single HDMI port.
No matter how high the retail price is, there is a more affordable option for those who can't stomach such a high price, if Asus product page For PC it is exact. A lower-spec version comes equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU and an RTX 4060 GPU, which should bring the cost down quite a bit.
The price could really hurt the NUC series
The ROG NUC is the first Asus NUC to be announced after the reveal of the partnership between it and Intel. Two other products shown during CES 2024 are the Asus NUC 14 Pro and the NUC 14 Pro+. Under the agreed terms, Asus can sell and support 10th to 13th generation NUC product lines, giving Asus a non-exclusive license to design systems.
Mini-gaming PCs are quite interesting with some pretty impressive components and parts, as we saw with the Asus ROG G22CH (which is Asus' version of the Intel NUC 13 Extreme). Not to mention, the fact that you can connect up to four displays to one small PC is pretty amazing considering many other full-sized desktop PCs and laptops can't do the same.
However, price is the main problem with this line of mini trailers. For the same amount of money, you could build a PC with the same or better specs, or tone down the components and create a much more affordable gaming PC.
It will be a tough sell for most gamers, even if the NUC series' selling point is a small form factor.
